A/N: Thank you all so much for your nice reviews! Here is another chapter, I hope you'll like it and I haven't let you wait for it too long. This chapter is unbetaed because my beta-reader is currently on vacation. Please forgive me for any mistakes or typos you might find, they will be corrected as soon as she is back.

Chapter 7 – An injured boy and disturbing news

I laid my forefinger on Harry's wrist as gently as possible in fear of causing further damage to him. To my big relieve I discovered a pulse, faint, but at least his heart was still beating. He also was hardly breathing, there was only the slightest up and down movement of his torso to indicate that his lungs were still working. The room I was in looked awful, every last piece of furniture seemed to be shattered and there was blood...oh Merlin, so much blood everywhere, most of it surrounding Harry in a steadily growing puddle.

The wolf in me got excited by the scent of it, fresh blood was something it hadn't smelled in a long time, it was hard for me to remain somewhat calm and in control of the beast that suddenly acted like it wanted to claw its way out of my confining body.

Harry looked terrible, like someone had tried to slaughter him. What little clothing he wore, was torn and dirty and his whole body was covered with cuts, some of which seemed to be awfully deep. He also had large bruises on several places, that looked suspiciously like the result of being kicked by heavy, worker boots.

Someone had left him here to bleed to death and if we had come any later, that someone would probably have succeeded. He would have still achieved his goal if we wouldn't have done something to stop the blood, flowing freely out of the boy's many wounds, soon.

I allowed myself to briefly pet Harry's cheek to reassure me, that we weren't too late, that he was still there, still alive. Then I pulled my wand out of its holster and cast Resarciorus in an attempt to seal his many wounds. The spell did work to some degree, it achieved to mend the minor wounds, but healing wasn't exactly my field of work. As a Defense teacher, it was necessary for me to know some healing charms and potions, but I wasn't a medi-wizard and healing charms as complicated as the ones to heal someone as badly wounded as Harry, far exceeded my abilities.

I stood up and approached the Headmaster, he was the only person present, who could do healing magic on a medi-wizard's level. I laid my hand on his shoulder but he didn't acknowledge my presence. I gently shook him to snap him out of his current state. I knew he blamed himself for the condition Harry was in, after all he was the one who decided to send Harry here, he thought that this place was save for James' and Lily's son. "Albus," I softly addressed him "You couldn't have known, it isn't you fault. Please Headmaster, Harry needs you now, my healing charm wasn't able to stop the bleeding."

At this he looked up and finally seemed to notice me. "Of course Remus, please excuse my reaction. For a moment I allowed my guilt to overwhelm me." He uneasily twirled the end of his long white beard between his fingers and sighed. "It is just that I did not believe, that something could happen to him while he is here, with all the wards that have been set up and the blood protection. I have become careless in my old age, too confident in my abilities, to notice the flaws in my plan and it did nearly cost him his live." He sighed once again, straightening his stooped posture. "I promise you, my boy, that I will do everything in my power to help him. You will not lose Harry too."

He went to kneel down next to Harry's battered body and I followed him there. I took Harry's small hand in mine and held it, while Albus cast a charm, which would temporary stop the bleeding until Mme. Pomfrey could heal the wounds properly.

Meanwhile, Arthur had come back to the room. He was pale and his whole body was trembling. "Is he...?" he asked quietly in a quavering voice.

"If you mean dead, then no Arthur. Fortunately, Harry is still alive," the Headmaster said. "But his condition is critical. We need to transport him to Grimmauld Place immediately, so Poppy can tend to his wounds."

"Thank Merlin!" Arthur said, his tremendous relief evident in his voice. "Who did this to him? I swear, when I find the person who is responsible for this, they are going to wish they would have never laid even a finger on Harry." he exclaimed aggravated.

"I can understand your sentiment, but we do not know yet who did this to him." Albus said, once more calm and in control of the situation. "I think it would be wise for you to stay here and call a few trustworthy Aurors for reinforcement. Harry's relatives need to be questioned and I don't want the ministry to get wind of the situation at this time. I want to keep this secret as long as possible, if the press were to find out it would cause an enormous scandal, something for which we don't have time at the moment. It is unavoidable that they will find out eventually, but for now the fewer who know, the safer it is for the boy."

"Yes, Headmaster I understand." Arthur said. "I'll call Shacklebolt and Tonks as soon as you've left. After we're done here I'll bring Harry's things over."

"Now that that's settled, can we go please?" I said, still holding Harry's hand. I hadn't let go of it during their conversation and wanted nothing more than to leave this place soon.

"We will, my boy, we will. Let me conjure a portkey to take the three of us out of here." Albus said. He transformed a random piece of debris and held it out to me.

I wrapped Harry into a torn blanket that had been lying nearby. I didn't see his glasses anywhere, if they weren't in his trunk, he would have to do without until we could buy new ones. Then I laid my and Harry's still joined hands onto the portkey. Soon, I felt the familiar tuck in my stomach, which indicated that it had been activated. A second later, we arrived at the entrance hall at Grimmauld Place.

Poppy was already awaiting us, standing next to a scowling Professor Snape and muttering something about stupid schoolboys that brought themselves into more trouble than good for them and expected her to patch them up again, every time. As soon as she saw Harry she became silent. I may have imagined it but I think I heard a gasp and a muttered curse from Snape's direction.

"Albus, what happened to the boy?" the mediwitch asked. "Who has done this to him?"

"He was attacked; by whom we do not know at this time," the Headmaster answered her. "Could you please give him a look-over and vet his wounds?"

"Of course, Albus. I'll do what I can for him."

Mme. Pomfrey was instantly in full mediwitch mode. She conjured a stretcher and ushered us away from Harry's unconscious form. I was reluctant to let go of his hand but a stern look from Poppy convinced me that it was necessary. She gently levitated his body onto the stretcher and then gestured it to follow her upstairs to the room, Snape had previously prepared. We silently tugged along behind her, none of us felt like speaking.

Once she had laid the boy onto the clean, white sheets of the bed and unwrapped the blanket from his body, she took an audible gulp of breath. Then she began to strip the tattered remains of his clothes off him carefully. As soon as he was naked and the full extent of his injuries was visible, we all gasped in unison. I had known that his condition was bad, but all those horrible wounds, some of which I hadn't seen before, showed just how bad it was. With a grim expression, Poppy raised her wand and began to examine her patient thoroughly. Speaking quietly to herself and muttering curses the whole time.

She sent Snape away with a list of potions she would need and, as soon as he had brought them, began to administer the multicoloured fluids internally and externally, to Harry's still unmoving body. After she cast some additional charms to speed up the healing process and another one to alarm her immediately, if his condition would change, she covered him with several layers of sheets to keep him warm and signalled us to follow her outside.

We walked downstairs and gathered around the kitchen table. When all of us were seated, the mediwitch began her report. "The boy has a large number of wounds, some of which are close to essential organs, they all appear to be caused by a kitchen knife or something similar. Then there are several contusions and broken bones. A broken rib has punctured his right lung, which has collapsed, but the left lung is fortunately still working and I have already given him a potion, to heal the injured lung and get it to function again."

She striped a stray strand of hair, which had escaped the tight bun she wore her hair in, from her sweaty forehead and continued. "He has lost a large amount of blood, but I am already working on substituting it with potions. Furthermore he has a concussion, probably caused by his head colliding with some hard surface. In addition he is undernourished and dehydrated, it seems that he hasn't had any food for at least two weeks and no water in the last two or three days. All this considered it is a miracle that he is still alive." She said, sounding fatigued.

"Will he survive?" I asked in a strained voice.

"In the light of his injuries, his condition is as good as it can be, but it is still critical. I can't make any reliable predictions on his survival until he regains consciousness. I'm sorry that I can't say anything more reassuring." Poppy said.

"How are his chances, Poppy?" Albus asked.

"From a medical point? His chances are low, but personally I think that he is a survivor, he has already endured longer than I would have expected him to, given the amount of his injuries. I have done everything that can be wizardly done for him at the moment, Albus. Now we can only hope and pray that he wakes up soon." The mediwitch answered.

Snape had been uncharacteristically silent during the whole conversation. He was steadily rubbing the palm of his right hand, as if something was hurting him there. Suddenly he stood up and strode out of the room, his robes billowing behind him. I was about to go after him but the Headmaster held me back.

"He won't talk to you, Remus. It would be unwise to follow him, he might get nasty if you'd confront him right now. He is upset about Harry's condition and doesn't want us to notice that he cares," Albus said. "Severus needs to be alone at the moment, please respect his need for privacy."

I wanted to reply something, but we were interrupted by the fireplace blazing green and Arthur's head appearing in the flames, his face contorted with anger. "Albus, we have found the little piece of crap that tried to kill Harry," he shouted.

All of us remaining occupants of the room hastily gathered around the fireplace, anxious to hear who it was.

"Please, take a deep breath and tell it to us from the beginning," Albus said.

Arthur followed his advise, then he started speaking: "I called Tonks and told her to come to Privet Drive and bring Shacklebolt with her. I said that it was Order business, so she knew that they had to be secretive. When they arrived we released the muggles from the sleeping charm. Then...then she, he." Arthur took another deep breath. "They were shocked to see us there and Harry's aunt started to babble something incoherent, his uncle petted her back and told her to be silent and take her pills, once she had taken them she didn't seem to notice anything that was going on around her anymore. I think she is insane, she perpetually muttered something about her Duddybaby, how nice he looked today and what a big boy he had become. Because we couldn't get anything useful out of her we started to question Mr. Dursley. He...he...he said...said that..."

"Shh, Arthur my boy, everything is all right. Here, drink this." Albus walked to the fireplace, a cup of tea in his hand, which he made Arthur drink up. "The Calming potion with which the tea was spiked should start to take effect any second now. Please continue Arthur."

"Yes Albus. Now as I said, we questioned Dursley and he outright admitted that he was the one who did this to Harry. He..." his voice faltered again, but the potion finally showed effects and Arthur was able to continue. "He said that it was all Harry's own fault. That...that the little freak had it coming for a long time now. He...he said that he only took revenge for his precious Duddykins, because freaks like Harry were responsible. Then he said....said that he should have done this a long time ago. Should have d...dr...drowned him, when he found him as an infant on his doorstep. Said that it would have saved his family from us evil freaks."

Arthur mussed his already messy hair with one hand. "We arrested him immediately and called muggle doctors to take care of his wife. He laughed when we arrested him, laughed in our faces and as Tonks asked him if he wasn't sorry or ashamed, to have done this to his own nephew, he said that he had enjoyed it. Merlin, I wanted to use an Unforgivable on him then and there." Arthur fell silent, his eyes shone with unshed tears of rage.

I had heard enough, I took off in direction of the front door to do what Arthur had restrained himself from. This muggle was going to wish that I would have merely used an Unforgivable. In the hallway I ran into Snape who had heard everything from his position standing there and was now headed into the same direction as myself. His face was a mask of hatred and I was tempted to propose to him to conjointly torture Harry's uncle. His skills in the Dark Arts and my physical strength would warrant hours of pain for Vernon. Albus thundering "STOP!" detained our race to the door.

The Headmaster stepped into the entrance hall and looked at both of us sternly. "I know what you two are planing, but I won't let you leave!" he said. "I cannot allow the two of you to become murderers, if the ministry would find out that you murdered a muggle, you would both be sent to Azkaban faster as I can say 'Lemon Drop'. Is it this what you want? Spend the rest of your life in Azkaban? I would have expected better from you two, especially from you Remus." Albus glanced at us sadly.

"Go to your rooms now, I will inform you if anything in Harry's condition changes. You are both vital members of the Order and I can't afford to loose you, therefore you may not leave your rooms until you have calmed down," he said.

When Albus was like this, which was luckily seldom, it was of no use to argue with him. Severus and I glanced at each other and then ascended the stairs to our rooms.

Well Padfoot, that's how I ended up here, writing in my journal. You can hopefully see now why I'm so aggravated. If you had been in my place, I think you would have ignored the Headmaster and would have gone to punish Harry's uncle anyway, wouldn't you?

I am so sorry that I haven't protected Harry better for you. I know it is my fault for not listening to him when he came to me. I am so sorry, Padfoot. Will you forgive me?

You hopefully see my reason now, why I'm going to ask Albus to assign me, instead of Fletcher, to travel to India for the Order and look for allies in the wizarding community there. I know that I'm running away again, something I'm good at, as you would point out to me. But, I can't bear to look at Harry now, look into his eyes and see the accusations in them. I am afraid that he will blame me for his condition, because I didn't stop his uncle from hurting him, didn't prevent him from having to go back to his relatives. I have failed him and I can't bear to be near him, knowing just how much I have failed him.

My eternal love is yours, my dear Padfoot, as I have sworn to you so long ago. I hope you aren't too angry at me and still think of me sometimes, wherever you may be now. I miss you so much and I wish you were here now, you would know what to do, you always did.

Forever,

Moony

# End of Excerpt from the Diary of Remus John Lupin #

A/N: I hope the length of the chapter was satisfying, it refused to get any longer than this. Liked it? Hated it? Please review and tell me your opinion.